"How could you sleep in a situation like that?" Sam pushed Chiro off of the bed so that he could get up. The door had not yet unlocked, but that time was probably not too far away.

"Oof." Chiro massaged his butt where it hit the hard wood floor. "You fell asleep too! And I told you they probably wouldn't be able to unlock any other doors last night, that was the safest time to sleep!"

Sam sighed and ignored Chiro as he buttoned up his uniform top. He couldn't believe he had really fallen asleep. Once the bottom of the shirt was tucked into his pants, he turned to face the other boy. "So what do we do? You think they are letting something, what, kill people at night? Somebody would notice, wouldn't they?"

"Somebody might notice, but it isn't likely. The people who took the job were probably people that wouldn't be missed, poor, homeless, orphans, that kind. There might be others like you here, too. If the breaker planets are selling off troublemakers in exchange for things they can't produce themselves? Nobody on your planet would think to look for you here. I doubt even your...whatever your leader's title was knows exactly where you went." Chiro touched his ear, then dropped his hand down onto his lap. "I sent out a distress signal using the emergency option in my chip. Most of it was deactivated when my parents died, but that function can't be shut off. Someone from the family will be coming here looking for me. Even if we are another of the terra'd moons, they will be here by today. We just have to get out that main door when they arrive. I have the code, but butler has been watching me so closely I don't think I can get out."

"If the only time nobody is watching is at night," Sam swallowed hard, the fear he was trying to ignore stuck in his throat. "If there is nobody watching at night, then that is when we have to go. I bet my door will be unlocked tonight, too."

"I didn't... I am sorry, Sam. I didn't think about how hiding here would put you in danger..."

Sam smiled at him sadly. "If you are right, then I am in danger anyway. We all are, even if we didn't know it."

"Yeah, I guess." Two sets of eyes wandered around the room, looking for anything that could help them. A quick push showed that everything was attached to the ground. "I guess they did it to all the rooms, to make sure nobody could do what I did."

"Okay, Chiro. You said it was a few minutes after the door unlocked before whatever it was tried to get in. That might be our only chance to run. We get ourselves ready, and as soon as the door unlocks, we run straight for the front door." Sam tried to sound confident, like he was sure that this was the best plan. He could see the doubt in Chiro's eyes, but the other boy nodded his agreement. "Now, do we go and do our normal jobs? I feel like we should eat something, but do we just pretend like nothing is happening?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Chiro shrugged. " I don't know what to do. I don't think they will let us stay up here all day, though, and nothing has happened in the daytime so far, so I guess we should go and eat and stay where others can see us all day."

Surprisingly, to both of the boys as they went about their normal routines, nothing happened all day. Butler followed Chiro, but he did not say anything, and his face was no more or less grim than it usually was. There were no opportunities to talk during meals, the stern man's eyes boring into them while they ate.

When dinner time came around, Sam was half convinced that the drama of the previous night had not even happened. A wild dream brought on by too much lost sleep. As everyone was getting up to finish their day, Chiro stumbled and knocked his glass over, spilling his water across the table and off the edge of it. It dribbled onto Sam's lap, who jumped up and grabbed for a napkin. Chiro reached across to hand him one, whispering so low that Sam had to strain to hear, "If I'm forced into my room, run when the door unlocks, I'll meet you at the entrance."

Then Butler was there, gesturing for Chiro to move on and for Sam to get back to work. Sam rushed through his evening cleaning, not really caring if things were spotless. Even if his door didn't unlock this night, it would open some night. He wanted to convince himself that nothing would happen, but when he walked to his room he saw butler standing at the top of the stairs, making sure that nobody went off to hide somewhere for the night. Sam understood then that it was not all Chiro's wild imagination, as much as he wanted it to be.

Sam checked under his bed when he got into his room, just to be sure, but he was alone. The door locked, but he didn't change out of his uniform as he normally would. He kept his warmer clothes on, and his shoes stayed laced up and on his feet. There was no point in trying to force himself to get any sleep.

The last few hours until midnight Sam sat on the edge of his bed, his eyes focused on the thin strip of light. He thought of his parents, wondering if they had been sad when he disappeared, or if Master Douglas had told them some sort of tale to cover up the fact that he was gone and not coming back. Did they think about him every night, as he did them?

When the door unlocked just after midnight, Sam was moving and opening the door before his brain considered what he should do. He pulled open the heavy wooden door far enough to slip out, and immediately turned toward Chiro's room and the stairs, breaking into a run when he saw the dark haired boy rush out into the hall. He didn't register the look of horror on his friend's face. He didn't hear Chiro screaming his name. There was pain as something crashed into him from behind. He was so cold, and as he fell forward to the ground, he wondered why Chiro was screaming.